Thieves Quotes

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”
― Sir Thomas More, Utopia

“Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

“Man is not, by nature, deserving of all that he wants. When we think that we are automatically entitled to something, that is when we start walking all over others to get it.”
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

“Choose your leaders
with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward
is to be controlled
by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
is to be led
by the opportunists
who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
is to offer up
your most precious treasures
to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
is to ask
to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant
is to sell yourself
and those you love
into slavery.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

“I've got kids that enjoy stealing. I've got kids that don't think about stealing one way or the other, and I've got kids that just tolerate stealing because they know they've got nothing else to do. But nobody--and I mean nobody--has ever been hungry for it like this boy. If he had a bloody gash across his throat and a physiker was trying to sew it up, Lamora would steal the needle and thread and die laughing. He...steals too much.”
― Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Don't let a thief into your house three times. The first time was enough. The second time was a chance. The third time means you're stupid.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“We’re a different sort of thief here, Lamora. Deception and misdirection are our tools. We don’t believe in hard work when a false face and a good line of bullshit can do so much more.”
― Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora

“What kind of knife is this?” Locke held a rounded buttering utensil up for Chains’ inspection. “It’s all wrong. You couldn’t kill anyone with this.”
― Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora

“Blink last.”
― Mary E. Pearson, Dance of Thieves

“After another ten minutes, the gates of thievery would open just a crack, and Liesel Meminger would widen them a little further and squeeze through.

***TWO QUESTIONS***
Would the gates shut behind her?
Or would they have the goodwill to let her back out?

As Liesel would discover, a good thief requires many things.
Stealth. Nerve. Speed.
More important than any of those things, however, was one final requirement.
Luck.

Actually.
Forget the ten minutes.
The gates open now.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Crooked Warden, I will fear no darkness for the night is yours," muttered Locke, pointing the first two fingers of his left hand into the darkness. The Dagger of the Thirteenth, a thief's gesture against evil. "Your night is my cloak, my shield, my escape from those who hunt to feed the noose. I will fear no evil, for you have made the night my friend."

"Bless the Benefactor," said Jean, squeezing Locke's left forearm. "Peace and profit to his children.”
― Scott Lynch, Red Seas Under Red Skies

“The thief, as will become apparent, was a special type of thief. This thief was an artist of theft. Other thieves merely stole everything that was not nailed down, but this thief stole the nails as well.”
― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

“In Venice in the Middle Ages there was once a profession for a man called a codega--a fellow you hired to walk in front of you at night with a lit lantern, showing you the way, scaring off thieves and demons, bringing you confidence and protection through the dark streets. ”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“Looters become looted, while time and tide make us mercenaries all.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

“When you optimize your talents very well, you can pick money from people's pockets and nobody will ever get the guts to call you a thief.”
― Israelmore Ayivor

“For him that stealeth, or borroweth and returneth not, this book from its owner,
Let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him.
Let him be struck with palsy and all his members blasted.
Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy,
Let there be no surcease to his agony till he sink in dissolution.
Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the worm that dieth not.
When at last he goeth to his final punishment,
Let the flames of Hell consume him forever.
[attributed to the Monastery of San Pedro in Barcelona, Spain]”
― Nicholas A. Basbanes, A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

“Anya looked upon Nin admirably. Having him as a partner-in-crime—if only on this one occasion, which she hoped would only be the start of something more—was more revitalizing than the cheap thrills of a cookie-cutter shallow, superficial romance, where the top priority was how beautiful a person was on the outside.”
― Jess C Scott, The Other Side of Life

“You don't necessarily need atomic bombs to destroy a nation. Politicians who value their pockets than the life of citizens always do that every day.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Ladder

“Stealing regular stuff was no fun. She wanted a real challenge. Over the last two years, she'd picked the most difficult places to enter. Then she'd snuck in.

And eaten their dinners.”
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance

“Forget diamonds or dogs—a girl or boy's best friend is always a high-powered weapon.”
― Sarah A. Hoyt, DarkShip Thieves

“I appreciate thieves who do their research, but at least you recognize worth when you see it.”
― M.L. LeGette, The Orphan and the Thief

“In medieval times, contrary to popular belief, most knights were bandits, mercenaries, lawless brigands, skinners, highwaymen, and thieves. The supposed chivalry of Charlemagne and Roland had as much to do with the majority of medieval knights as the historical Jesus with the temporal riches and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter. Generally accompanied by their immoral entourage or servants, priests, and whores, they went from tourney to tourney like a touring rock and roll band, sports team, or gang of South Sea pirates. Court to court, skirmish to skirmish, rape to rape. Fighting as the noble's substitution for work.”
― Tod Wodicka, All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well

“Thena . . . I fell in love with you as you are. Fractured, maybe. Lost, perhaps. But I'm no prize either.”
― Sarah A. Hoyt, DarkShip Thieves

“Thieves and liars kill indirectly, unintentionally, and with no other weapon than their tongues and malice.”
― A.E.H. Veenman

“Let me enlighten you. We are a pack of liars, thieves, and wastrels, the lot of
us...There is not an honestly gained parcel of land in the whole earldom. Every acre, every village was stolen through one reprehensible manner or another. Deceit, blackmail, extortion, all of
it. It’s disgusting.”

Alex waited a moment to make sure Whit was quite through before asking, “How long ago?”

“Did we steal the land, do you mean?”
Alex nodded.

“Up until about a hundred years ago, then the wastrels took over.”
― Alissa Johnson, As Luck Would Have It

“The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Rather beg than steal.”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“The only way crime will increase and get out of hand it is because those who are supposed to stop it are part of it and they are benefitting from it.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“– Nu te-oi speria cu Hugo, continuă rusul. Probabil c-o moarte din partea lui ți-ar părea mai comodă decât propria ta piele.”
― Agape F.H., Busola de pe Nova Scotia

“Ali and his cousin Ahmad were seeking jobs abroad to enable them to escape the economic hardship in Pakistan that had been caused by massive flooding. Ali borrowed $4,000 from family and friends to pay an agent for a tourist visa that would enable him to reach Cambodia, where he and Ahmad were met by a broker. They paid the broker a further $1,475 each for a work visa processing fee, before being taken to a large compound in Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
After their passports were taken and they were warned not to try to leave, they were forced to work alongside approximately 1,000 other people, each forced to scam five people daily with cryptocurrency investment schemes. They were watched over, fined and beaten if they failed to comply:”
― Jessica Barker, Hacked: The Secrets Behind Cyber Attacks